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Taiwanese-American. Husband. Fulbrighter.

Barrington Hwang's '14 Journey to Taiwan Brought Lessons On Family, Expanding Horizons

By Texas Christian University

October 20^th, 2021

To say that Barrington Hwang ’14 is accomplished would be an understatement. A triple major in chemistry, economics and biology during his time at TCU, Hwang also found time to campaign for a spot in Student Government Association, raise money for Cook Children’s Medical Center with his Delta Tau Delta brothers, serve as an Admissions Ambassador and become one of the finalists for Mr. TCU, among other achievements.

Hwang, who is completing a psychiatry residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, found that his Fulbright experience in Taiwan lent him new perspective on family and expanding his horizons. It even introduced him to his future wife.

TCU alumni Barrington Hwang ’14 (left) and Preston Oliver ’14 (right) stand on a rooftop in Yilan County, Taiwan, during their Fulbright experience.

Medical School Deferred

Hwang thanks numerous TCU professors for helping him achieve academic success, but he credits Ron Pitcock, Ph.D., director of prestigious scholarships, for encouraging him to apply to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, saying the experience “changed my life.”

Hwang originally planned to attend medical school directly after graduating from TCU, but Pitcock emailed him personally and encouraged him to apply to Fulbright, arguing the experience would be worth it and he could likely receive deferred admission to medical school. During a visit to UT Health San Antonio, Hwang received further encouragement to follow through with Fulbright from the medical school’s dean.

After months of applications and interviews, the news of his Fulbright acceptance came during a speech class. Hwang let out a cheer, bringing the class to a halt. “I didn't pay attention for the rest of class,” he confessed.

As Pitcock had suggested, UT Health San Antonio gave Hwang dispensation to defer his admission and begin his journey to Taiwan.

Lessons from the Classroom

After finishing orientation, the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (also known as Fulbright Taiwan) assigned Hwang to teach English to second through sixth grade students in a school in Su’ao, a rural town in northeast Taiwan’s Yilan County. There, he assisted a co-teacher with three to four classes per day, and at times led individual lessons on his own.

The teachers collaborated on class management and lesson planning; sometimes Hwang took the lead in lecturing to classes, and other times he taught students in small groups or pairs. In his first month, Hwang tried leading classes on his own when the co-teacher was unavailable. “It went very poorly,” he recalled, saying the language barrier and his lack of experience with classroom management and lesson planning made teaching challenging.

Local teachers assisted him in regaining control of classes and focusing the lessons. The experience “gave me a new level or respect for teachers; teaching is definitely a developed skill,” Hwang remarked.

Hwang and co-teacher Jennifer Huang instruct sixth-grade students on learning incentives in Su'ao, Taiwan.

From Taiwan to Texas and Back Again

The idea of teaching English in Taiwan appealed to Hwang on several fronts, most notably because of his connection to the country. His parents immigrated to the United States from the island nation as children.

Growing up, Hwang and his brother had little interaction with family members in Taiwan. Fulbright provided an opportunity for him to “get to know the country, from my own perspective, as opposed to through family.”

After teaching, Hwang would sometimes take Mandarin classes, which proved helpful when communicating with family in the country with whom he had rarely spoken with before.

Although he was not able to see his family members often during his Fulbright experience, Hwang returned to Taiwan twice after finishing. Despite the language barrier, the two sides of the family made the most of their time together. He recalled his Taiwanese relatives saying, “‘We'll try our best and you try your best, and we'll just enjoy the time together.’”

Because of his experiences in Taiwan, Hwang felt able to connect with his parents about their early lives. Connecting with his grandparents also became easier due to his improved Taiwanese and Mandarin. The year abroad was “really helpful in terms of bridging that conversation,” Hwang said.

Hwang with his great aunt in Taiwan during a visit in 2014 to his father's hometown of Nanzhuang, Taiwan. Hwang returned to Taiwan after his Fulbright experience for family visits like this one.

Fulbrighters in Love

Because Hwang lived in an apartment building in the city of Luodong in northeast Taiwan, he commuted via scooter (sometimes through tropical rain) to his school in Su’ao. Coincidentally, his apartment complex was also home to the woman he would later marry: Yue Yuan.

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Yuan was also in Taiwan to teach English as part of the Fulbright program. Yuan and Hwang met while going through an orientation session after arriving in the country. The two worked in separate locations but quickly became friends and started spending time together.

Hwang (bottom left), Yuan (back row, center-right, with white shirt and glasses) visit a local market with other Fulbrighters from Yilan and Taichung.

Hwang (left), Yuan (far right), and other friends (from left to right: Albert Wei, Kyle Renick, and Emi Preston) celebrate New Year’s Eve together on a rooftop in Taipei.

Hwang and Yuan traveled outside Taiwan throughout their Fulbright year, including to Hong Kong for a swing dance festival and to Singapore and South Korea.

In retrospect, Hwang was not surprised that long-term relationships formed out of Fulbright. “If you think about all the life factors for a lot of the people in the program, it makes sense that some participants might go on to form romantic relationships,” he said.

Expanding Horizons

Hwang came away from his Fulbright year with expanded horizons.

“Because I didn’t know Mandarin or Cantonese well, one of the major lessons I learned was what it’s like to not really have a voice,” he recalled. Hwang said he struggled to communicate on a basic level when in Taiwan, whether in his job as an English teacher or in everyday conversations with those around him. He realized those feelings of demoralization, isolation and lack of empowerment were an example of the voicelessness that many groups in society experience on a regular basis.

Hwang (center) during a lunchtime basketball match with fifth and sixth grade students.

“We think about not having a voice, and there's a lot of groups in society that—for systemic reasons or individual reasons—don’t,” Hwang observed. The experience led him to base his personal statement for his application to residency on his experiences with "voicelessness" in Taiwan.

"I think all med students, applicants and first year-med students should get a different life experience besides school and medicine."

The Fulbright experience also led Hwang to an epiphany. The pipeline from undergraduate education to medical school can be direct, with no time for future medical students to add to their overall life experiences. “I think all med students, applicants and first year-med students should get a different life experience besides school and medicine,” said Hwang. Spending time away from medicine and study, whether it be teaching English in Taiwan to being a wildlife guide in Alaska, could be personally valuable to future doctors, he said.

Reflecting on what he would tell TCU students curious about applying for Fulbright, Hwang said he would encourage them to apply, even if they might not be accepted to the program.

“I think there are still a lot of benefits. You connect with a mentor, have interesting conversations and start thinking about living in another country or doing other projects,” Hwang said. Fulbright provides applicants with an opportunity for personal growth and other “intangible benefits” that applicants, regardless of whether they are accepted or not, can take advantage of later in life.

Footnotes

Photos courtesy of Barrington Hwang '14

FootNotes

Photos courtesy of Barrington Hwang '14

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